Hard candy confections are very popular in the United States. They are amorphous confections having a relatively smooth and glassy surface. They appear in various shapes and sizes and come in various flavors, such as fruit, mint, butterscotch, peppermint, and the like. Although chocolate is a very popular flavor in other types of confections, it is surprising that chocolate flavored hard candy makes up only a small percentage of the hard candy market. An example of a hard candy chocolate product was sold in Japan and named BLACK and WHITE. It was manufactured by Kanro and was sold as part of a pair of products. The BLACK hard candy contained a chocolate flavored hard candy center, and the surface thereof was dusted with cocoa powder, while in the product called "WHITE", the candy contained a hard candy center and the surface was dusted with milk powder. The "BLACK" product had a rough, coarse, sandy surface--characteristics which are not acceptable for hard candy.
Thus, the present inventors sought to make a chocolate flavored hard candy which exhibits mouthfeel, texture and organoleptic characteristics typical of hard candy. First, they used commercial cocoa powder to make the hard candy.
Cocoa powder is the food prepared by pulverizing the material remaining after a portion of the cocoa butter is removed from the chocolate liquor. Commercial cocoa powders are typically produced by grinding cocoa presscake with pinned disc mills or hammer mill type equipment. The resultant cocoa powder meets particle size specifications which are typically 98-100% through a U.S. 200 mesh screen (75 microns).
However, when the inventors prepared a chocolate flavored hard candy from commercial cocoa powder, the resulting product was unacceptable. It had a rough surface and sandpaper-like feel to the tongue. When viewed under a scanning electron microscope, it was found that the particles from most commercial cocoa powder were larger than 15-25 microns, the threshold widely cited in the literature for sensory perception. In addition, the particles had an irregular shape, with uneven, jagged and sharp edges which accounted for its unacceptable textural sensation.
Thus, commercial cocoa powder, as such, could not be used to make acceptable chocolate flavored hard candy. Obviously, the cocoa powder needed to undergo further treatment before it could be used as an ingredient.
The use of wet micromilled cocoa powder was also considered but was found to be unworkable. U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,175 describes a chocolate food product comprised of an aqueous sugar solution of microparticularized cocoa, while U.S. Pat. No. 5,190,786 describes a chocolate chip prepared by utilizing an aqueous sugar paste containing microparticles of cocoa dispersed in the paste. In neither instance was the product produced a hard candy since the micromilled cocoa powder was in water based chocolates, icings, frostings, or other products. Furthermore, the process utilized to pulverize the cocoa powder was not adaptable to the preparation of hard candy since in both instances, the cocoa powder used was wet-milled, i.e., milled in the presence of water. As both patents indicate, cocoa powder can only be wet-milled at water levels above 70%. Cocoa with this much water would be added before the cook. This is undesirable in making chocolate flavored hard candy due to problems with effects on equipment such as sticking and burn-on, swelling of particles and higher viscosities during forming.
The inventors attempted to make chocolate flavored hard candy using micromilled cocoa to prepare the hard candy. When the cocoa particles were milled to a smaller size, the product formed was still unacceptable. For example, when the cocoa powder was further milled on a roll refiner with fat added to produce particles having an average size of 6 microns, the resultant cocoa powder still imparted a rough surface texture to hard candy prepared therefrom. Thus, mere milling of the cocoa powder to a small particle size was not sufficient to solve the textural problems that heretofore have not been overcome.
But, it was found that a key to making acceptable chocolate flavored hard candy was to utilize a cocoa powder which, when micromilled, would produce appropriately small particles having a generally smooth surface. Cocoa powder particles of size less than about 15 microns generally having non-jagged and smooth and rounded surfaces were found to provide an acceptable sensation to the tongue. Thus, when the inventors found a method which produced micromilled cocoa powder particles generally having smooth edges and prepared a hard candy therefrom, the product produced had a smooth textural feel to the tongue as well as the organoleptic, textural and visual appeal of hard candy. This product was therefore an acceptable chocolate flavored hard candy confectionery.